EMD Millipore Opens First Lab Water Production Site in China

• Opening marks another milestone in EMD Millipore’s commitment to the Chinese market.

February 27, 2012, Billerica, MA — EMD Millipore, the Life Science division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today inaugurated its lab water production site in Shanghai. The facility will manufacture the Ming Che™ product line of tailor-made lab water purification systems and consumables targeted to meet the demands of the Chinese market, and will be sold exclusively in China. The opening of this lab water production facility marks another milestone for EMD Millipore; reflecting its long term commitment to offer the division’s expansive portfolio of products, technologies and tools to the life sciences industry in China.

“China is one of our fastest growing regions,” said Robert Yates, President of EMD Millipore. “The rapid growth of the pharmaceutical, health care, and life science industries is driving demand for ultrapure water in Chinese laboratories. Today’s opening of the lab water production site further enables us to meet that growing market demand, and reinforces our commitment to providing innovative products and valuable technology that the Chinese life sciences industry needs.”

“As a global leader in lab water products we see a great opportunity in China,” said Klaus Bischoff, Head of EMD Millipore's Lab Solutions Business. “We continually strive to bring the best technology and products where they are needed and today I am pleased that we are starting to offer our state of-the-art, made in China products to our Chinese customers.”

The localized product portfolio will be marketed under the new Ming Che™ brand (“clarity and purity” in Chinese), and is designed to meet the specific requirements of Chinese customers. The Ming Che™ products will cater to laboratories at private research facilities, contract research organizations, universities, government and academic institutes, as well as clinical centers, with applications ranging from in-vitro diagnostics to pharmaceutical vaccine production and sterile food packaging.

In 2011, EMD Millipore opened a Biopharmaceutical Technical and Training Center in Shanghai that provides support, training and validation services to EMD Millipore’s biopharmaceutical customers with operations in China. The facility provides local and regional customers the opportunity to investigate, explore and optimize their upstream and downstream processes, as well as environment monitoring processes with the support of EMD Millipore’s local, regional and international experts.

EMD Millipore is committed to partnering with its global customers to create innovative solutions for research, development and production that meet the evolving, complex needs of the life sciences industry in China. The opening of the Biopharmaceutical Technical and Training Center in 2011 and today’s announcement of the Lab Water Production Site are key examples of delivering on the division’s focus to working with our Chinese customers to help advance life science.

The first batch of EMD Millipore’s China-made lab water products is scheduled to be launched in March 2012.

About EMD Millipore
EMD Millipore is the Life Science division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, offers a broad range of innovative, performance products, services and business relationships that enable our customers' success in research, development and production of biotech and pharmaceutical drug therapies. Through dedicated collaboration on new scientific and engineering insights, and as one of the top three R&D investors in the Life Science Tools industry, EMD Millipore serves as a strategic partner to customers and helps advance the promise of life science.

Headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, the division has around 10,000 employees, operations in 67 countries an 2010 revenues of $2.2 billion.